A mid the ebb and flow of COVID-19 waves, in-person festivals and markets are slowly making a comeback, but how has two years of relying on video conferencing changed the game?

Several Canadian companies made the trek to Cannes, France this month to attend MIPTV with their catalogues in tow, including Blue Ant Media, Cineflix and Nelvana, after the annual market was cancelled in 2020 and digital-only in 2021.

Nelvana president Pam Westman (pictured left) tells Playback Daily the market has shifted to a focus on “finding, forging and strengthening partnerships” over sales. “Gone are the days of writing orders in the booth, if you will, or doing a pitch and your broadcaster saying, ‘that’s it, I want to buy it,'” she says. “The meetings take on much more of a strategic point of view.”

Meetings are less about pitching specific IP, for example, and more about how Canadian and international producers can use coproduction treaties or leverage regional financing models to fill funding gaps on projects in their pipeline. Westman points out that the majority of its greenlights in the last few years have included partners, such as Zokie Sparkleby for Nickelodeon, Thomas & Friends with Mattel or Super Wish with redknot, a joint venture between Nelvana and Discovery Kids LatAm.

The markets are also a key arena for international broadcasters in need of content, according to Westman. With streaming services often securing global rights to premium series, she says broadcasters in countries such as the U.K., Germany and Australia have sparked discussions on how to partner on productions early to secure their territory rights.

Cineflix Rights CEO Tim Mutimer (pictured right) says MIPTV was still a success on the sales front, noting that European buyers and producers “attended in abundance,” with interest in both its catalogue of existing scripted and factual content and new productions.

The Cineflix Media-owned distributor set up a booth at this year’s market, where it launched titles such as Great Pacific Media, Modern Story, December Films and Cineflix Studios’ Reginald the Vampire and the Canada/Mexico copro Sugar, both of which were acquired by Amazon streamer Prime Video for release in Canada.

Mutimer says the market was “more compact” than the pre-COVID era, but with global broadcasters and streamers in constant need of content, it felt “as busy as usual.”

Westman says Nelvana gave up its booth at the market two years ago, so they’ve transitioned to more casual business meetings in cafés and restaurants their first year back. Among the partners she met with during the market were Mattel, Nickelodeon and Warner Bros., which recently completed its merger with Discovery.

The return to MIPTV has also injected more of a human element back into the business, says Westman, with colleagues able to share photos of their kids and catch up on each other’s lives.

“The formal stuff, like the actual pitching of projects and doing business, we’ve been doing that all along with video conferencing,” She says.”[MIPTV] has been a nice grounding of our relationships again.”